Impact of the internet on teenagers' influence on family purchases

Abstract

Purpose The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the impact of the internet on teenage childrens' roles in purchase decisions. Design/methodology/approach Based on a survey administered to 346 parent‐child dyads, regression analysis and ANOVA analysis were employed to analyze the impact of the internet on teenagers' influence on several purchase subdecisions related with purchase of high technology products and vacation planning in urban Indian households. Findings Results indicate that teenage children in urban Indian households are significantly influenced by the internet, i.e. they perceive and disseminate consumption related information from the internet and, further, this influence is positively related to their role in family purchase decisions. Additionally, statistically significant differences were found on children's participation in decision making across the six subdecisions. Originality/value These results are important to academicians, researchers and practitioners because they show that the internet does act as a contemporary influence on consumer socialization of children and impacts the teenage child's participation in family which has been relatively unexplored.